First confirmed cases of Clostridium difficile PCR ribotype 027 in Norway

Link: Rapid communication: First confirmed cases of Clostridium difficile PCR ribotype 027 in Norway.

Since 2003, the emergence and distribution of a hypervirulent strain of Clostridium difficile PCR ribotype 027 has been described in North America, Japan and several European countries [1-6]. In December 2007, C. difficile PCR ribotype 027 was found in two cases of C. difficile-associated disease treated in a hospital in Oslo, Norway.

Case reports
The first case, a woman in her eighties living in a nursing home in Oslo, was diagnosed in September 2007 with a urinary tract infection and treated with mecillinam. Twenty-four hours after initiating treatment, she was admitted to a local hospital with a diagnosis of diverticulitis, for which she was treated with ciprofloxacin and metronidazole. She was then transferred to a hospital in Oslo, where computer tomography scanning revealed abdominal abscesses and the colonoscopy showed pseudomembranous colitis. C. difficile toxin A was detected